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Counselling support

If you have a prostate problem you’ll know how disruptive it can be to your life. But along with the physical difficulties may come a number of emotional challenges which are likely to affect not only yourself but your wife or partner and family too.

While our primary concern for you as our patient is to help you overcome your condition, we see it as fundamental to a successful outcome that support is available as and when you need it.

That means support from those at home as well as from us. It means everything from encouraging your partner to be present during your visits and to take an active part in helping you reach a decision on treatment, right through to offering professional help when one or both of you feel the need.

It means helping you work through some of the many anxieties you may have – the sort of anxieties you might have been reluctant to raise with your consultant but which have remained as nagging questions ever since:

am I going to survive this?

what if I become incontinent?

will I lose my potency?

will I have much pain?

what should I say to other people?

when should I tell our children?

how is life going to change for me and my family?

Many stages in your “patient journey” can be potentially stressful and it is often helpful for you and your partner to share your concerns about them with others. These are some examples:

undergoing tests (biopsies, MRI/bone scans etc)

waiting for results

understanding treatment options

deciding what to do next

anxieties about procedures and side effects

organisation and planning

facing the future

The Prostate Centre has a range of facilities available to support you through various periods of your diagnosis and treatment:

We have many previous and current patients we can put you in touch with and who will be happy to talk over the issues with you.

Our highly trained nurses will spend time with you to explain practical matters and help you cope with physical and emotional difficulties.

We can facilitate patient and “family member” group sessions for people to exchange ideas and share experiences.

I was very impressed during my first visit at the amount of time you were all prepared to devote to Gloria and me. That interest continued throughout my follow-up visit, the operation and afterwards. Discovering that I had prostate cancer was fairly traumatic; not only is the cancer itself frightening but the consequences of the treatments are also daunting. You and your team made it so much easier to come to terms with the problem and to understand the implications of the corrective measures needed.